Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 25 : High Court today treated a petition regarding extraction of soil from the state land as Public Interest litigation and asked the petitioner to supplement his pleadings on the issue by filing a supplementary affidavit disclosing his credentials in filing the petition.
The petitioner Mohammad Maqbool Dar of Delina Baramulla had preferred the instant petition in his personal capacity but the court after hearing him and perusal of record opined that the matter involves public interest.
Petitioner-Dar informed the court that Additional Deputy Commissioner Baramulla has given permission to one IRCON International Limited for extraction and lifting of soil in a residential area in a shoddy manner as also the other officials for the last many years have not taken any action against the encroachers of state land.
Court has been apprised that in the year 2009 the Managing Director of Cooperative Housing Colony in Baramulla with the support of some persons of locality has brought the land of the local household for the purpose of setting up a housing colony and the Additional Deputy Commissioner Baramulla purchased the land from the nearby local villagers and then changed in to the plots and after that sold the plots to the outsiders for constructing the residential houses.
Petitioner submitted that MD of Housing Colony sold all the residential plots to the outsiders and constructed the full-fledged colony on the upper side of the village Delina and with the help of some blue eyed persons started to interfere and encroach upon the Shamilat Deh Mahfooz Kahcharai (State Land) which is in and around the said housing colony.
“We are satisfied that the matter is in public interest inasmuch as the petitioner is complaining about the extraction of soil from the State land. However, we do not find that the petitioner has disclosed his credentials in initiating this Pubic Interest Litigation. Accordingly, we allow counsel for the petitioner to file a supplementary affidavit disclosing the credentials of the petitioner in filing this Public Interest Petition”, Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice V C Koul directed.
On approaching the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir in this regard and after considering the issue he directed the Deputy Commissioner Baramulla to look into the matter and take necessary action but nothing has been done till date.
The petitioner informed the court that the land mafia and the land brokers are initially excavate the soil from the state land and then change it into the plots and almost 200 households are residing in the colony without any registered documents and have managed to construct the residential houses.
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